To improve the general sealing of these hygiene articles in the crotch zone and the effect of the containment of urine and fecal substances, this being achieved even in the case of violent diarrheal defecations often encountered in infants, it has already been proposed, for example by Patent Application GB-A-2,161,059, to provide additionally, on the internal face of the covering sheet, two transversely spaced lateral tabs or flaps extending substantially along the longitudinal edges of the hygiene article. These flaps each have a proximal part joined to the covering sheet and a distal part having tensioned longitudinal elastic elements.
By virtue of their tensioned elastic elements, these lateral flaps are permanently laid against the user's skin, whatever the movements made by the latter, and this is not always true of the longitudinal elastic elements fastened to the external supporting sheet, particularly on account of the presence of the absorbent pad and of the rigidity and thickness of the pad. However, this improvement only relates to the transverse or lateral sealing (at the crotch) and not the longitudinal sealing (at the waistband).
The attempts to improve the sealing of the waistband by the provision of an elasticised waistband and/or of an impermeable transverse strip covering the transverse edge of the absorbent pad have not been entirely satisfactory.
It has already been proposed, in Patent Applications EP-A-2,264,238 and EP-A-0,376,022, to provide on a hygiene article of the type comprising internally two elastic lateral tabs or flaps, at least in the vicinity of one transverse edge of the article, a transverse element forming a waistband pocket extending between said flaps, being arranged either above or below said flaps. This element is fastened transversely in a tensioned state to the underlying parts of the hygiene article by means of its transverse edge corresponding to the transverse edge of the hygiene article and over all or some of its longitudinal edges, whilst its other transverse edge remains free, thus allowing the element to open in the manner of a pocket at the location of this internal free transverse edge. However, these pocket elements are not entirely satisfactory insofar as they do not afford sufficient sealing, especially with regard to migrations of liquid in the direction of the waistband. Moreover, the production of a hygiene article having such pocket elements is relatively complicated and therefore entails an appreciable increase in the cost of the article.
Finally, the U.S. Pat. No. 4,662,877 makes known a napkin pilch, the covering sheet of which is covered over its entire length with a rectangular additional sheet permeable to liquids, of reduced width, fastened to the covering sheet along its four sides and provided with a central orifice of general rectangular shape, the opposite longitudinal edges of which are fitted with tensioned elastic elements. These tensioned longitudinal elastic elements lift the additional sheet from the covering sheet and from the underlying absorbent pad along the longitudinal edges of said orifice, thus forming types of lateral barriers. However, this lifting effect is limited by reason, among other things, of the reduced length of these elastic elements. The same is true of the lifting, hence of the waistband-pocket effect, of the transverse edges of the said orifice under the tension of the longitudinal elastic elements.
The object of the present invention is to improve the hygiene articles of the type with lateral tabs or flaps and with a waistband pocket or waistband pockets, in such a way as to improve, in general terms, the longitudinal sealing effect, that is to say at the location of the waistband, in particular from the point of view of the migration of liquids. The object of the invention is also to provide a napkin pilch of this type which, whilst being of higher efficiency, can be produced at a reduced cost.